Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very well aware of the work of Shannon Chamber and Helen Downes, who does excellent work. I would point out that the biggest job announcement so far this year was made by the Minister last Friday for Dexcom in Athenry, which will benefit workers and industry in Clare with 1,000 jobs over the next number of years. IDA Ireland continues to target that kind of investment into the regions, into the western side of the island as well as the eastern. We will absolutely continue to work with groups such as Shannon Chamber. Later in the year we will be launching a call for applications under the new regional enterprise plan, REP. The plan for the mid west involves a bottom-up approach. It is led and chaired by its own locally based implementation group. It deals with designs projects and plans that are directly relevant, which we are interested in funding and supporting. Through the REP, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and other investment agencies, we will continue to support the growth of the mid west. We are due to host our next Building Better Business conference there at the end of May.

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